With a cruising range of more than 800 kilometers and a maximum power of more than 1,000 horsepower-Lucid Air is both a saint and a sinner, and it may also be the most efficient mass-produced electric vehicle on the planet. The specific reasons are as follows:
The Lucid Air does not look like a high-performance car. It is a luxury electric car designed and developed from scratch. The interior space is comparable to that of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class. There are two large luggage compartments at the front and rear. The interior combines minimalist technology with the unique California chic, Unmodified coolness presented in an intuitive way.
But the Lucid Air is indeed a high-performance car. Recently, Lucid has just announced the data of the Air Dream Edition, the company's first car. The details are as follows: the cruising range is estimated by the US Environmental Protection Agency to be more than 800 kilometers (Lucid itself said that it is 732 kilometers on the highway), and the battery pack capacity is 113 kilowatts. hour, with a maximum power of 1080 horsepower, acceleration from 0 to 97 km/h in 2.5 seconds, and energy consumption efficiency of 6.4 km/kWh (Porsche Taycan Turbo S is approximately 4.2 km/kWh).
It’s not uncommon for electric vehicle manufacturers to release ridiculous performance figures. But we have reason to believe in Lucid. The company's current CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson (Peter Rawlinson) once worked at Lotus and Jaguar, and later went to Tesla and was responsible for the engineering design of the groundbreaking Model S. At Lucid, he had secured sufficient capital to build a purpose-built factory from scratch (the headquarters was, of course, in Silicon Valley, California, but the factory was in Arizona) and was ready for mass production of the car—the first The car will roll off the production line next year.
The easiest way to get a long cruising range is to use a larger battery. The Air's battery pack is large, but not to the point where it alone gives it a range advantage. Lucid's range (and power) is the result of an engineering program that puts efficiency first, and it's all developed in-house. For example, the high-voltage architecture applies experience from their Formula E battery project. The Taycan uses an 800-volt system, while the Air's is 924-volt.
Rollinson explained: "The main advantage (of high voltage) is reduced heat loss. For the same power, doubling the voltage can halve the current intensity; halving the current reduces heat loss. As little as a quarter (lower current means lower resistance, which means less energy is lost and less heat is generated). "The effect of high voltage is a bit like Lotus founder Colin Cha. The kind of virtuous cycle that Colin Chapman is obsessed with: low heat means that a smaller and lighter cooling system can be used, which means that a smaller radiator can be used, and the drag coefficient is lower (Air is only 0.21), which means that You can go further...? The world's leading electric motor drive unit? Lucid's drive unit has a maximum power of 670 horsepower, but the entire unit including electric motor, reduction gear, inverter and differential weighs only 74 kilograms. The rear-drive unit of the Porsche Taycan Turbo S (of course it uses a 2-speed transmission) is slightly less powerful, but weighs 170 kilograms. The front-drive unit weighs 76 kilograms, but the power is only about 250 horsepower.
Rollinson said: "From a power-to-weight ratio perspective, our unit efficiency is 2.5 times that of other products." How is this achieved? There are many ways to do this, some of which Lucid has yet to make public, but one of them is to use independent development as part of an overall engineering project. Competitors often use parts from several suppliers, and the result is a "Frankenstein" (a monster pieced together from the parts of different corpses). Such solutions can only be heavier, less efficient, and less integrated. Not high. Rawlinson was also obsessed with miniaturization. In order to facilitate space design, he ordered the engineering team to make the drive unit as small as possible, which would naturally make it lighter.
There are also some clever engineering touches, such as a patented gear tooth profile that reduces oil shear forces, thereby improving efficiency, and a "unique differential and planetary gear transmission" ”, as well as analyzing the magnetic field within the motor’s stator to identify targeted heat dissipation areas where Lucid could improve efficiency.
The resistance of the stator copper coil increases with temperature (thus reducing efficiency), Lucid is able to overcome this more effectively - on most electric cars, the motor is cooled by a water jacket, sort of like Trying to cool the Earth's core from the outer layers of the atmosphere. ?Furthermore, Lucid does not use the IGBTs (insulated gate bipolar transistors) commonly used in the industry, but uses more efficient metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors - Rawlinson said this technology is very effective in high-voltage systems like the Air. There are advantages.
"I can't make it public yet, because someone will definitely copy it." Rawlinson said frankly with a smile: "I don't plan to make it public six months before mass production. We know the first batch of cars Wherever they are to be sent, they are all cities with car companies: two are going to Stuttgart, one is going to Ingstad, one is going to Wolfsburg, and one is going to Detroit... By then Pandora's box will be Turned on." By then we should have experienced the Air's ferocious numbers and gotten a glimpse into the future of electric vehicles.
We introduced Lucid in the April 2018 issue, interviewed Peter Rawlinson, who was only CTO at the time, and Derek Jenkins, the vice president in charge of design, and also took a test ride on the Air The No. 1 project prototype vehicle. This trip left a deep impression on us, including the car, the pragmatic approach to development, and the integrity of the engineering and design of the entire project, but Lucid is not satisfied with this achievement. Because Rawlinson doesn't like to set specific goals and only gives basic principles, his team had to work on every aspect of the car to make it as high-performance and efficient as possible. The Dream Edition sells for about $170,000 in the United States, with an $80,000 version to follow, and Rawlinson hopes to use Lucid's technology to make electric vehicles more affordable.